Abstract
This chapter analyzes the work of Shaykh Gabriele Mandel Khan (1924–2010), artist, intellectual, writer, professor, and psychoanalyst. Mandel funded the Italian branch of the Jerrahiyya-Khalwatiyya in the 1990s after having met his Turkish master, Muzzaffer Ozak (1916-1985). With his charisma and erudition, Mandel played an important role in the Italian Islamic cultural sphere, translating fundamental books and participating in cultural events. Mandel is a complex and eclectic figure who attracted both spiritual seekers in the path of René Guénon, Frithjof Schuon, Georges Gurdjieff, and Carl Gustav Jung, and lifelong Muslims looking for a traditional Sufi Shaykh. Mandel’s approach to Sufi spirituality was quite unusual, merging psychoanalysis and Sufism. This chapter shows how Mandel’s Sufism was built on works by Idries Shah (1924–1996) and Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933–). It demonstrates that his intellectual and spiritual horizons were influenced by Judaism, Greek philosophy, and Western esotericism, which all contributed to the elaboration of a multicultural and multi-epistemological universalism. This universalism did not imply a process of de-Islamization, nor did it correspond to the Traditionalist philosophy of René Guénon (1886–1951), which was characterized by a profoundly anti-modern spirit. Mandel’s understanding of sacred knowledge resonates with Transcendentalist philosophy and with psychological interpretation of William James focusing both on perennialism and on the universality of the religious bodily experience.
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Notes
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Piraino, F. (2021). The Sufi Shaykh and His Patients: Merging Islam, Psychoanalysis, and Western Esotericism. In: Sedgwick, M., Piraino, F. (eds) Esoteric Transfers and Constructions. Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61788-2_9
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